The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and especially to an electrical connector for connection with a flexible cable having a stuffer for pressing the flexible cable to engage with terminals of the electrical connector.
When a pair of devices to be connected is individually assembled into a computer enclosure and is required to be replaced by an alternative counterpart, a permanent connection method such as soldering is unfavorable. A flexible cable, such as an FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) or an FFC (Flexible Flat Cable), for providing releasable electrical connection between the devices is one solution for the above problem. The flexible cable is especially useful within a narrow or complicated space of a computer enclosure due to the high adaptability thereof.
A conventional connector such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,545 is connected to a flexible cable by pivotally pressing the flexible cable against a plurality of terminals. Therefore, the terminals are connected to the flexible cable and the flexible cable is secured within the connector. However, the pivotal movement requires an actuation space thereby possibly interfering with the other devices within the computer enclosure. In addition, pivotally pressing the flexible cable is likely to cause a frictional sliding of a surface of the flexible cable thereby possibly damaging the flexible cable. Furthermore, the sliding movement of the flexible cable due to the pivotal pressing may cause circuit tracks on the flexible cable to be inaccurately engaged with the corresponding terminals. Thus, false signals may be generated in the circuits. In a worse case, the circuit or a component connected to the circuits may be damaged due to overheating caused by the inaccurate engagement between the flexible cable and the connector.
Furthermore, due to current trends, different components of a device are manufactured at different plants. The components are then transported to another plant to complete assembly of the device. Thus, a structure of each component must be suitable for long distance transport. However, a member pivotally mounted to the connector may become damaged during shipping by impacting other parts of the connector or unexpected objects outside the connector.